Senate Republicans on Friday voted to confirm former Fox News host and conspiracy theorist Jeanine Pirro to serve as the United States Attorney for Washington, D.C. Pirro only received support from the GOP, while all members of the Democratic caucus who cast a vote opposed her nomination. The nomination passed with a vote of 50-45.
Pirro is yet another former Fox News talking head to join the Trump administration. During her time at the network, Pirro frequently interviewed Donald Trump and sung his praises. She joins figures like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, among others, who worked for the right-wing propaganda network before being brought on to the Republican administration.
During her time at Fox News, Pirro distinguished herself by being one of the network’s most notable promoters of thoroughly debunked election conspiracies. Following Trump’s loss in the 2020 race against former President Joe Biden, Pirro repeatedly argued that the election was stolen from him. These were all lies.
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Pirro’s decision to push election myths, particularly fake stories about Dominion Voting Systems purportedly “flipping” votes to Biden, were part of the trigger for that company’s lawsuit against Fox News. An internal email that surfaced in the suit revealed that a Pirro producer told Fox executives her broadcasts were “rife” with conspiracy theories and “completely crazy.” Even after some within Fox made clear to Pirro that her assertions were made up, she refused to make changes to the monologues that opened her program.
This is the person that Trump and Senate Republicans have put in charge of prosecuting federal crimes in D.C.
Ultimately Fox had to pay out nearly $800 million in a financial settlement with Dominion, based in part on Pirro’s lies and conspiracies.
Pirro also promoted other conspiracy theories outside of the 2020 election while at Fox News, including the baseless claim that the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas was the work of more than one person. She even claimed in 2018 that attempts to investigate Trump for his role in subverting the 2016 election were “an attempt at a coup.”
Pirro’s conspiratorial ranting ventured into racism when she promoted the bigoted “great replacement” theory. Pirro said in a 2019 Fox Nation radio appearance that immigration is “a plot to remake America, to replace American citizens with illegals who will vote for the Democrats.”
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When promoting a book in 2023, Pirro also appeared on a podcast openly supportive of the debunked QAnon conspiracy, which alleges liberals and celebrities drink babies’ blood, among other insane theories.
Trump has spent much of his time in the public eye promoting and supporting all manner of conspiracy theories, from racist birtherism to ludicrous claims that China made up global warming. In appointing Pirro to such an important position, he has rewarded a fellow traveler—and Senate Republicans have given her their stamp of approval.